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Minutes for Campaigns Executive on 10 February 2005

Document status: Final

Minutes of Campaigns Executive on 10th February 2005

Attending:

Tom Page [TP] (DSU President)
Georgia Rooney [GR] (DSU Education & Welfare Officer)
Nick Pickles [NP] (Campaigns Officer)
Simon Meadows [SM](Chair & Grey Rep)
Rob Taylor [RJT] (Secretary)
Jenny Wilson [JW] (Presidents Exec Rep)
Elizabeth Savin [ES] (George Stephenson Rep)
Greg Baker [GB] (Hatfield Rep)
Patrick Winter [PW] (St. Chad's Rep)
Jon Lee [JL] (St. Cuthbert's Rep)
John McGee [JM] (Hild Bede Rep)
Victoria Fullerton-Batten [VFB] (St. Mary's Rep)
Helen McGill [HM] (Trevelyan Rep)
Samantha Lambart [SL] (University College Rep)
Alice Delemare [AD] (Van Mildert Rep)
Zofia Jones [ZJ] (Academic Affairs Officer)
Corwin Wright [CW] (Senior Returning Officer)
Rachel Fraser [RF] (Hild Bede prosepctive Senior DSU Rep candidate)
Andy Thompson [AT] (Treasurer)

1) Apologies

Viki McNab (Campus Liaison Officer)
Alex Duncan (Communications Officer)
Richard Toomer (Collingwood Rep)
David Newsome (John Snow Rep)

2) REPORTS OF OFFICERS
a) TOM PAGE
Nothing to add following Council yesterday.

b) GEORGIA ROONEY
Nothing much to add apart from the nightbus for Queen's Campus has fallen through due to Arriva having staffing problems.

c) JENNY WILSON
Collingwood have been saved from having to have a Professional Bar Steward, I'm meeting with Gary Cox to confirm this.
Peter Warburton has been asking Presidents' Executive for support as he is having problems with university cricket. Unfortunately there were differences among the presidents and we were unable to offer support.
The South Road Working Group has made progress as there is now DSU policy supporting us. The County Council are putting traffic lights in at Howlands and a pedestrian crossing in by the back gate to Van Mildert. I'm going to another meeting at 10.30 tomorrow.

d) NICK PICKLES
I went to a meeting with Tom and Roberta Blackman-Woods, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Durham.
I'm resigning from the position of Campaigns officer to concentrate on my degree.

SL- How do you stand as Campaigns Officer?

NP- There will be an election at the next UGM.

3) LIBRARY UPDATE

GR- Next year's library budget will be set on 25th February

ZJ- We appear to have missed the boat as far as next year goes. This issue has been taken to Library Users Committee before, and opening times were extended in 2002. Any changes will only be done if there is a need for there to be a change, for example if they see queues outside a library that is closed. As well as this, there are problems with staff contracts as late work requires paying staff higher wages and this requires asking the higher powers in the University for money.
Extra hours will be put in if the statistics show they will be used. Queen's Campus and Education libraries are also in another building, so the cost of keeping the building open must also be bourne to open the library. It is planned to move the law library to the main library in the Ten Year Plan.
College libraries are not currently on the OPAC system, so there is a move to integrate these libraries into the system.
The library has campaigned on behalf on students before when there had been a need for change.

PW- Student's won't stand outside a closed library though.

ZJ- Yes they will, but there are not many students in when it is open.

HM- Were college polls included in the report we sent to Library Users Committee?

ZJ- The report was taken into consideration, the main feedback has been in the form of statistics.#

JM- The law department seemed to give positive feedback to extended opening hours. We could try to get Staff Student Consultative Committees (SSCCs) on side.

ZJ- Good idea. We could try and get to SSCC meetings.

JW- How is usage monitored in Palace Green library?

JM- There is a turnstile

[Steering Note: There was then a discussion about whether the turnstile counted people. It was decided that it did not.]

ZJ- I'll ask for the statistics report for Palace Green.

SL- It is a useful library as it is on the bailey.

ES- What about Queen's Campus?

ZJ- The problem there is that to open the library there needs to be security cover for the whole building.

ES- There is security there all the time though. There were queues there last weekend.

TP- There is an issue at Queen's Campus. It may be useful to get college Principals on side.

HM- What more can we do.

ZJ- We could do some sort of demonstration. We need to convince the library it is not just a student whim.

TP- We need the figures they are using so we know what usage is required.

ZJ- I'll try and get the statistics.

SL- Will the library be offended that we are doing this so late?

ZJ- We could campaign for next year's budget. Maybe we need to campaign until next year.

TP- We could do something as simple as writing letters to the library.

ZJ- There is still the issue that pay rises if people work later.

PW- Aren't there feedback forms. Could we not get colleges to fill these out?

TP- This is a good opportunity to get an increase in spend per student by the University when top up fees come in in 2006.

ZJ- I'll get the statistics report and try to track the feedback forms down.

HM- The forms are by the library map. Do we want to postpone doing anything until next year?

VFB- Hours have extend in the middle of this budgetary year. There is still a hope that they will be extended even if we don't do anything by 25th February.

TP- This increase in hours may be due to increased fines income.

4) SPORTS FACILITIES & LEVY

ES- An astroturf is being built at the Queen's Campus (QC) but it is costing more than expected. QC sports teams can't actually afford to play on it. It costs as it is a University ground not a college ground.

TP- Have you asked Scott Davis (QC Sports Director).

NP- £15/hour is the same charge as at Maiden Castle.

TP- Colleges usually have their own grounds. You could speak to Peter Warburton, Matt Tansley or Quentin Sloper as they have a better connection with sport.

NP- University teams seem to use the astro at Maiden Castle for free.

5) RUBBER TAX

GR- NUS are campaigning against "Raising Tax on Rubbers" along with the Terrence Higgins Trust. Would we be interested in taking this up as a campaign? It will only be stuff like letter writing and petition signing.

TP- MPs have also tabled an Early Day Motion.

SL- What is the tax now?

TP- Standard VAT of 17.5%.

GR- We want it down to 5%. The 'free' condoms in Durham are actually bought by DSU who then give them out free. The NHS are now thinking about making us pay for them.

JM- Paying for condoms is a waste - Go chase.

GR- If there is no time to run this, people could volunteer to run it in each college. If we aren't passionate about this we shouldn't run it.

SL- We would need a co-ordinated date.

TP- We could come up with a plan for next week.

SM- We could do things in colleges. I'll put it in next weeks agenda.

6) NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY

GR- All finalists are being surveyed and the results are being collated to create a table of student opinions to go alonside the league tables. It is important we encourage people to fill it in. I've been put in charge of running the survey at Durham. There are general and department specific parts of the survey.

SL- It has been sent round as an email attatchment.

HM- There is a link from the DSU webpage.

GR- I haven't got the publicity this week, but it is fairly poor as it is unclear. Can you start plugging this in colleges. The deadline is the very specific 'Spring 2005'.

7) ANY OTHER BUSINESS

CW- The election results will be announced at 9.00pm but may not be final. Logins to DEVote will close at 7.00pm.

JM- Did a member of steering come into Hild Bede about the DUAU Presidential election.

CW- That would be a question for the Freedom of Information Officer.

AD- Can someone ensure that all the bother about livers out mailings and appeals doesn't happen again.

JW- Who does it fall to to enforce the rules?

CW- It is up to me as SRO but I need to be told about any problems.

JW- Could the regulations be made more public?

CW- It is the Senior DSU Reps' jobs to put DSU stuff up and make sure people know about it.

TP- The rules are complex and people can't be bothered to read them.

[Steering Notes: They aren't thaat difficult to understand.]

HM- What went wrong with University Challenge?

TP- What is happening about University Challenge?

JW- Its hard to find a time.

SM- I asked about this at Council. We could do it on Thursday but that would clash with things. Could we do it Tuesday OR Thursday next week?

TP- We could do it the week after (22nd & 23rd Feb) with two sets of questions starting at 8.00pm. Questions are to be sent out on 19th/20th February. You will be emailed with the questions but not the answers. Are thre any problems.

[AT arrives from Directors of Services]

GR- Who is supposed to organise this?

SM- The Ents Officer is mandated to, but due to her short time in the job, the Treasurer stepped in.

TP- Posters will be out next week. We've sorted everything now Andy.

AT- Oh, right.

MEETING CLOSED 17.35

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